Source: BBC
Gen John Allen: “We should be seeking to win this war”The outgoing commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has said the alliance is on the road to winning the war.Gen John Allen, who handed over to Gen Joseph Dunford on Sunday, said troops had gone “a long way” towards winning a counter-insurgency.Gen Allen is set to be nominated as the alliance’s supreme commander in Europe.
Last month, he was cleared of misconduct by the Pentagon in a scandal that led former CIA director David Petraeus to resign.’Not on the table’
“Counter-insurgencies take a while and it is difficult to put a dot on a calendar and say, ‘Today, we won’,” Gen Allen told the BBC.”I think we have gone a long way to setting the conditions for what, generally, usually, is the defining factor in winning a counter-insurgency – to set the conditions for governance, to set the conditions for economic opportunity…. I think we are on the road to winning.”